Keynan Rew on top at Gillman Speedway
Gillman Media 12 January 2026
The weekend of international meetings at Gillman continued on Sunday night (11 January) with the CBS Bins FIM Oceania Solo Championship and on this occasion it was Keynan Rew who took the spoils.
Rew not only took the remaining berth for Australian riders in the Speedway Grand Prix qualifying rounds in May, but did it in style by top scoring in the heats and then winning the final with another thrilling ride against Rohan Tungate and Jaimon Lidsey.
After the regulation 20 qualifying heats, Rew was alone at the top of the scorecard with 13 points, beaten only by Tungate and Ben Cook in the heats.
Behind him were four riders — Luke Becker, Tungate, Lidsey and Cook — tied on 12 points and it was the American who won the countback for the second direct qualifying place in the final, after finishing ahead of the other three when they met.
The last chance semi-finals saw Tungate, Cook, Scott Nicholls (9) and Justin Sedgmen (8) finish in that order in the first semi-final and Lidsey lead home Mitchell McDiarmid (9), Luke Harrison (6) and Leon Flint (8) in the second.
McDiarmid, who had the best of his Australian Championship rounds at Gillman on Friday night, continued that form on Sunday night starting with a commanding win over Nicholls and Becker in heat one. He also finished ahead of Tungate in his second ride to be sitting in equal second place (behind Rew) with 7 points after three rides, but then, with maybe a place in the final in his thoughts, he finished last behind Lidsey, Will Cairns and Jordy Loftus in his fourth ride. Ultimately he finished that one place short of a final berth, but nevertheless it was an impressive showing.
Another to show out early in the night, after a mediocre Australian Championship series by his standards, was Justin Sedgmen, who led all the way to beat Cook, Flint and Loftus in his opening ride, but, while still riding okay, he dropped off a little as the night went on.
So to the final and Rew, with first choice of gate positions, took blue, Becker took yellow, Tungate took red, and Lidsey was left with white.
The final was really two races in one as all four riders wanted to win the championship, but Rew and Tungate were also in the running for the GP qualifying berth as the highest placed Australia, with Lidsey not in that battle as he had already qualified by finishing second in the Australian Championship.
The first attempt to run the final saw disappointment for the spectators as Tungate, Rew and Becker went three wide through the first turn, and Becker, with not much wriggle room between the other two and then fence, lifted and fell and was subsequently excluded.
In the rerun Tungate took the early lead and he is rarely passed when in front at Gillman, but Rew made another of his hair-raising (for spectators at least) wide outside passes in turn four to take the lead, which he held narrowly for the rest of the race, with Tungate finishing a close second, and Lidsey in third, watching the other two go at it in front of him.
